The names of Grade 12 learners who pass matric will not be published in the newspapers when the matric results are released.

This was revealed at the final Council of Education Ministers (CEM) meeting, which was held in Pretoria.

“The Ministers resolved that the results for this year would still be published in newspapers… but will only reflect the learners’ ID and exam numbers,” Department of Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said.

Mhlanga said the CEM had taken the decision to review the publishing of individual Grade 12 learners’ results following a recommendation of a task team.

The meeting also discussed the implementation of recommendations contained in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) Ministerial Task Team report.

“CEM agreed that raising the pass mark for the NSC must be considered as part of improving the quality of education in South Africa. It was agreed that this should be done incrementally,” Mhlanga said.

He said the integrated National Strategy for Learner Attainment Framework (NSLA) had been revised for General Education and Training (GET) and Further Education and Trading (FET) for 2015 in a bid to improve learner outcomes and enhance accountability measures at all levels of the system.

It was also done to ensure greater focus on the basic functionality of schools, protecting time for teaching and learning and improving support for teaching and learning.

The NSLA is a comprehensive strategy to co-ordinate provincial improvement plans and steer them towards the optimal performance of all learners.

The focus area for the 2015 academic year will be the education of learners with special needs, education in schools with multi grades, tracking learner performance quarterly, the impact of ICT and the impact of extra classes.

Other focus areas included the impact of support by subject advisors, the impact of language interventions and the impact of teacher development and learner performance.

Sign language

The Department of Basic Education has also completed the development of the SA Sign Language and it has been gazetted as policy.

“Training of teachers is underway… Provinces will prepare schools for implementation. An implementation plan has been provided to provinces,” Mhlanga said.

He said a report stating that Sign Language would be implemented in Foundation Phase and Grade 9 was submitted at the meeting. – SAnews.gov.za